“The harder I tried to make sense of the idea of “decolonization” that has become the rallying cry for those trying to undo the racist legacies of the past, the more I kept asking myself to what extent we might … Continue reading →

I think some of Sterling’s meditations on Sissie and Marija help elaborate on some of the sticking points we had in our discussion on Tuesday, particularly regarding Marija’s strange attachment to the past or German primacy (embodied most clearly via … Continue reading →

It may be useful to think of Sissie and Marija’s sometimes-strained relationship in terms of jouissance, and the extent to which their attachments to one another are mediated by transgressive pleasure they achieve through their congress. One scene in particular … Continue reading →

Joe, a popular Kenyan magazine that ran from 1973 to 1979, occupies an interesting space in the history of popular African culture. Though the magazine claims to speak for “the common man” of Kenya, thereby contesting the corruption of class-based … Continue reading →

I was immediately struck by Glissant’s rhapsodic prose in the section titled “The Open Boat,” which describes the horrors of slaves jettisoned so that the ships carrying them might evade their assailants. I’d like to examine the concluding lines of … Continue reading →